


Wolf at Your Door

by shadoedseptmbr



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Animal Transformations, Other, Wolves, magic transformations, wacky magic is wacky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 01:50:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2091354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadoedseptmbr/pseuds/shadoedseptmbr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A triggered trap on Sundermount leaves Hawke and Fenris in a bit of a bind.  Sebastian tries to sort it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolf at Your Door

**Author's Note:**

> _This is not exactly a complete story, I just wanted to post it for the amusement of my tumblr chums and it was too long to inflict on their dashes._

 “I still don’t see how we didn’t spring the bloody thing when we came in.”

“We must have stepped around it.” Fenris was answering while Sebastian pressed along the smoothed calcite wall, looking for a weak point near the waterseep.

The trap sprung as lightning and thunder shattered the greenish purple sky they could just glimpse outside.  Hawke had been attempting to disarm the unfamiliar trap in the limestone cave. 

A flash and a boom and the rush from the impact slammed Sebastian face first into the stone.  His ears rang with the aftereffect as he scrubbed blood dripping from his gashed brow away from his eyes.  “Hawke?  Fenris!” Spinning around, he went still as his eyes cleared enough to see what stood in front of him.

The larger wolf was a brindled soft brown, his ruff tipped in silver, a pale dorsal stripe leading into a silvery tail.  His eyes were green as agates when Sebastian could see them, for the animal was whipping around, trying to look at its own body and whining.

The smaller wolf (though, small was relative for it is still larger than any wolf or dog Sebastian had ever seen) was a rusty black, the flickering lightning behind her turning the ruff red.  It’s…no _her_ , oh _Maker_ , no.  _No please_.  _Her_ eyes were pale as silverite and fierce and afraid.

Growling, trying to defend against whatever had done this.

Sebastian was never quite sure how they’d gotten back to Kirkwall.  He’d coaxed them into calming down and it was clearly _them_ , still.  But he didn’t recall the trip back down the Wounded Coast.  He must have concussed himself, in the blast.

As they walked through the city, people shied away from him.  Sebastian wondered if it was his notoriety as one of Hawke’s companions or the reminder of the Chantry on his buckle that kept the city guard away.  One followed him all the way to Darktown.  He’d have to talk to Aveline about that.  He knew the guard was spread thin, but really.  He should have been challenged, at least.  Walking through Kirkwall with wolves, of all things. 

 

When they got to the clinic Anders gaped at them for a few moments before shouting,  “Bloody Void, get those animals out of my clinic, Vael!”

“Wait, Anders…please.  It’s not…not what it looks like.”

“There aren’t two freakishly huge wolves bleeding and getting their blighted dirty paws all over my clean…mostly clean floor.”  Anders realized suddenly that the animals weren’t the only ones hurt.  “Andraste’s sweet shoulders.   What in the Void happened to you?“  He reached for his kit but the archer waved him off.

“No…no, them first.” 

“I’m not touching those things.  They’re as like to rip my throat out as not.” Fenris, of course, had been growling since they’d entered the clinic.  But Aeryn had trotted in happily enough until Anders had started shouting at Sebastian.  Now, her lips were pulled back and the curved ivory canines were shining, forebodingly.

He knew he was in shock, shaking and stammering, “Don’t call them that! That’s Aeryn…Hawke and Fenris.”

“What?!” 

“We…we were up on Sundermount…there was a cave, a trap….it…it exploded, I don’t…don’t…Anders, just fix it.  Fix them, please for the love of the Maker.”

Baffled, the healer in Anders took over and he poured Sebastian a earthenware mug of tea with a generous dollop of the honey Hawke had brought by earlier that week and handed the archer a wet compress for the gash on his forehead before he tried to approach the creatures.  The one Anders supposed was Hawke had stopped snarling, since he stopped yelling at the priest.  Typical.  Still her favorite. 

 _That’s not a bad sign actually,_ Anders thought to himself. It meant, that whatever had happened, it was maybe only skin deep.  That, inside… _mentally_ , she was still Aeryn Hawke.

Unfortunately, that also meant Fenris was still _Fenris_.  The wolf’s mouth was in a gaping snarl, drool beginning to drip to the floor, ears flattened and hackles raised, trying to make himself even larger, Anders noticed with a shudder. Canines.  He raised a hand towards Hawke, slowly and carefully, only to have Fenris try to push between them.

A sharp bark from the Hawke wolf, though, stopped the other wolf’s movement and she was very still under Anders probing fingers watching him with hauntingly pale eyes. All the while, talking in a low soothing voice, telling her what he was about to do.  All the while, talking in a low soothing voice, telling her what he was about to do, Anders pushed a pulse of warm magic in front of his hands, healing the cuts from the shattered limestone, and carefully pulling out tiny fragments. 

Sebastian managed to sip the herbal tea, wincing at the bitterness before he asked, “Can you fix it?”

Anders ignored him for a few more minutes, searching.  Until, finally he had to admit, “I…don’t think so.  I can’t find anything, well, wrong.”

When Vael spluttered Anders shrugged.  “If it’s a curse I can’t feel it.  If it’s some sort of potion, it’s not left any residue.  All we can do is …wait, see if it reverses itself.  They aren’t hurt, beyond the cuts.”  He looked at Fenris.  “Are you going to let me help that?”

Hawke sidled up to Fenris and leaned against him, nudging his shaggy head with her pointed muzzle.  Whining, he let Anders search through his fur for stone chips and cuts.  He had fewer than Hawke had, a little farther from the explosion, clearly.  It registered with Anders, though, the tensed muscles and the tremors that wracked the animal, every time the gentle healing magic pulsed.  Fenris had hidden his fear better, before. 

 

000000

He could not, Sebastian knew, take them to the Chantry.  Elthina was gone to Cumberland for a meeting and he would not inflict wolves…even _these_ wolves on Revered Mother Tanis or the worshippers.  No tavern would take them and with the storm still raging, he had to find them all shelter. 

Not Fenris’ estate.  That place was leaky as sieves.  Sometimes damp dripped from the ceiling, even in dry weather.

No choice, really, but the Hawke villa.  And he could not leave them there alone.  Aeryn was very particular about Orana’s feelings.  Wolves would be too far.

And Aeryn had always promised that they were all welcome for any reason.  She’s reflexively trotting in that direction, anyway. 

“Your place, then?”  She gave a yipping little agreement and when Fenris paused, turned and pushed him along. 

“I think it would be best if you stayed together,” Sebastian agreed.

Fenris turned his shaggy head back towards his mansion and Aeryn dropped a paw on his, a gesture familiar to Sebastian in their interaction.  Finally, with a shake of his coat, now verging towards sodden he got up and trotted in the direction of Hawke’s.

Bodahn answered the door with the expression he often greeted Sebastian with, resigned acceptance combined with a bit of distaste at the man dripping on his door step.  “Mistress Hawke is not at home, Brother Vael.”

“No, she’s here.”

“I’m sure I…” his eyes narrowed at the sight of the animals behind the prince.  “Oh, my lady…what has happened here?”

She nudged his hand and the dwarf knelt to her.  She poked him in the chest with her muzzle. 

“It was some sort of trap.  We will have to figure out how to cure it, but it’s late and” Fenris’ stomach growled, “Ah, they could do with a meal.”

 

 

Hawke hops up on the large bed and …it’s her bed, of course.

Sebastian sprawled on the guest bed that Orana showed him.  Fenris had been shown a room as well.  Sebastian is at a loss.  These are not wolves, certainly not hounds.  They are people, no matter their circumstances.  He should probably just go back to his own cell.  Exhaustion and his own injuries had caught up with him and he fell fitfully asleep.

He wakes to the clicking metallic noise of claws against the door handle.  And finally a frustrated statacco growling whine that can only be Fenris swearing in Wolfish Tevene.

 

 _Ah. Nature calls._   “Sorry, my friend.” Sebastian trails him to open the doors that will not respond to paws. 

 

Fenris yipped and a lean shadow separated from the wall and trotted towards them, halting when it saw Sebastian.  Hawke was in the garden already, so perhaps Bodahn had let her out. 

If she, too, responded to nature, she'd dealt with it and moved to pace the wall of the garden.  Fenris trotted to the other side, a screen of bushes seeming to suit him.  Sebastian approached her, holding out a hand, reflexively.  He’d occasionally assisted in the kennels of the Keep when he was a boy.  Agitated deerhounds were best approached with caution.  Wolves seemed to be like enough. 

She shied away from him.  “It’s alright.  I’m sorry to have interrupted you.” 

A whine and she pawed at the gate.  “You want to…go out?  Hawke, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.  We don’t know what’s happened yet.  If you got into a brawl with a mage…maybe another dose of magic isn’t a good idea?”

She whined again, but sat down apparently agreeing. 

“We’ll go see Merrill in th’ morning, alright?  Perhaps she can tell us something.  It might even be an elvhen magic.”

A growling yip.

“Or Marethari?”

Fenris joined them, yawning and clearly ready to go in and resume his sleep.  Sebastian was wavering on his feet, the stress of the adventure taking its toll but it took a bit of coaxing to bring her in. 

Bodahn was waiting for them in the tiled mudroom.  He gave his mistress a small bow.  “Trouble sleeping, m’lady?  Well, and no wonder.  Never seen the like of this.”  She nudged his hand. 

 

 

Sebastian found her curled up against his door the next morning, though she seemed a bit ashamed to find herself there.

 

After a slog up to Sundermount where Marethari was just as baffled as Anders and Merrill had been, an impromptu fight, they're sprawled on the chaise.  Baths all round, and some lavender scented powder.  Aeryn leaned up against Fenris and Sebastian fell asleep, waking when his book clattered from his hand to find them snuggled against him.

Sebastian climbed the broad stairs to bed and Aeryn’s ears fell when he held the door for her, her steps plodding.  “Ah, come on then.”  Fenris bounded up onto the mattress, circling before curling up against Sebastian’s side.  Aeryn was more hesitant, perching warily on the hearth rug watching them.  After a few minutes and finally, Sebastian sat up and patted the bed. 

“If you’re sharing you can’t be on the floor. Come on, _a nighean_.”

She laid her head on Fenris’ flank and watched Sebastian over her long nose, before yawning, gaping maw all teeth and tongue.

 “Sleep well.”

It's the first time he could recall in years that he’d had a bed long enough to stretch fully out in.  Not to mention the first time he’d been warm in Harvestmere since he came to the Chantry.

The next afternoon Sebastian took...accompanied...them to the Hanged Man,for it was clear they were in need of a change of scenery.  He had thought perhaps just a walk but Fenris had turned towards the Lowtown bridge and Aeryn trotted beside him.  He'd had little choice but to follow. 

Corff looked at them with a mouth so wide Sebastian could see the barkeep's blackened back teeth.  But he said not a word as the two huge creatures padded up to Varric's suite.   Aeryn hopped up into one of the low armchairs and laid her head next to Varric's broad, but elegant hand.  He softly laid it on her head and she sighed, a small whine in the breath she took. 

“Don’t like it, do you?”

“ _wuff_.”

 

Oooooo

 

After two days, Sebastian felt he had no choice but to return to the Chantry, if only to explain.  Fenris prowled at his heels as they entered the flickering light of the sanctuary, but Hawke halted at the door.  "It's only for a minute, Hawke, I promise."  Fenris nudged her shoulder and at last she padded cautiously into the cavernous narthex, seeming to wince with every click of her claws on the marble tile. 

Human, Aeryn never betrayed her unwillingness to linger in the Chantry outside of her eagerness to leave and her watchful eyes.  No stranger would have realized.   Wolf Hawke, though, was cowering. He dug his hand into the thick ruff of fur, to rub soothingly and she pressed herself to his flank.  The eternal Chant grew louder for a few moments as one Chanter joined the last one, and the poor creature started to shake.  “It’s alright.  Aer…Hawke, they’re just…it’s alright.”

Fenris was suddenly pressed to her other side, but no amount of coaxing would make her go up to the loft.  Thankfully, Elthina must have spied them.  The Grand Cleric descended the stairs in an orderly fashion and came to stand before them, with a bemused expression.

“Sebastian.”

One word is all it took for Sebastian to start his tale, beginning in a rush, “It’s a spell of some sort, Grand Cleric.  This is Hawke and her companion, Fenris.”

Her eyes widened slightly as he spoke, but otherwise Elthina didn’t betray her surprise. “Indeed.  Maker bless you, children.”  Aeryn flinched away from Elthina’s raised hand with a snarl and the older woman stopped, startled and then, a little hurt.  “I would not harm you, Hawke.  It’s alright.”

“I’m sorry, Elthina.  I think…I think it’s harder for her to…she’s uncomfortable.   I should probably take her home.” 

“You are dealing with them, then?”

“The others are looking for some sort of solution, as best they can.  I’m…trying to make sure they stay…themselves as much as possible.”

“I assume that means you will be away awhile longer?”

“I do not think it’s a good idea to have them here.”  Aeryn had edged away, backing towards the door and Fenris was trying to block her from the eyes upon them.

“Probably not.”

How had he never realized how much fear she had?  He took them to the door.  “Stay out here for just a bit, please?”

Fenris gave him a gruff.  Aeryn gave him something of wolfish cold shoulder.  Sighing, he went back in for prayers.

An hour and some ill-disguised disapproving counsel from Elthina later, Sebastian returned to the courtyard.   The two were nowhere to be seen and he had to fight down panic.

Perhaps they’d returned to the estate?

He jogged down the stairs and was halfway across the landing before he saw them.  Donnic hailed him with a smile.  "She caught a cutpurse for me, there's a good lass."

The man rubbed Aeryn's ears and Sebastian tried to push down the odd feeling that bubbled up.  She wasn't a dog.  Fenris' hackles rose, sensing Sebastian's upset, and Aeryn, who by all accounts had seemed to tolerate the treatment cocked a questioning gaze at Fenris and then from some silent communication, at Sebastian.  And whatever was on his face made her dodge Donnic's hand.  Though she lashed her tail, as if to placate him. 

Donnic laughed, “My pardon, m'lady.  I did forget.  Aveline wanted you to check on something in Darktown, I think, if you've a bit of time to spare."

They'd followed the map the Guard Captain gave them with little trouble.  In a small hovel carved out behind an alley, barely more than a caved-in section of wall that dripped with damprot, they found the person who'd stolen the purse of one of Hightown's illustrious citizens and provoked a screeching demand that Aveline clamp down on such bold acts.

He was just a boy, with barely a hint of hair on his chin, and Sebastian had hopes of talking him down.  The growling animals flanking him made it difficult.  Wide eyes fixed on them made Sebastian miss the moment when the fellow lunged towards him with a bare blade.  All Sebastian could do was shout, “Stop!”

Later, when Sebastian was deep in a cup of tea generously laced with whiskey, trying to forget the look of horror on the boy’s face as his throat was ripped out, the way she had licked the blood of her muzzle, it occurred to him that it really couldn’t be a surprise.  That it was Fenris who obeyed.  And Hawke who’s first and last and strongest instinct was to protect.

Knight Captain Cullen met them, “Brother Vael, you cannot bring your pets.  I’m surprised they were allowed on the ferry.”

He sighed.  “This is complicated, Knight Captain but would it be possible for me to meet with Bethany Hawke?”

He explained as Cullen’s tired eyes grew wider.  Finally the templar shook his head.  “Come on. You’re lucky, Meredith is gone for the day, up the Coast to Ostwick.  Maybe Orsino can help, if Bethany can’t.”

Bethany couldn’t.  She shook her head, mirroring Cullen’s dismay.  “If…a healer…couldn’t find the trouble, Brother Vael, I’m sure I can’t.”

Orsino tried several versions of spells designed to dispel other forms of magic and at last suggested a smite.  He and Bethany withdrew while Cullen stood between Fenris and Aeryn and lifted his hands.  

Fenris snarled as the light flashed.  Aeryn let out an anguished yipe as it rolled across them and both wolves collapsed as if the light had weight. 

Nothing else changed.

“Magic, then, most definitely.”  Orsino mused.  “But like nothing I’ve seen.”

“What should we do, then?”

“Wait.”

Aeryn snarled and padded away from the mages without a look.

000000

He couldn’t stay at the estate any longer, Sebastian decided after a week.   He had duties at the Chantry he’d let slide too long.  Orana was comfortable enough, Sandal happy to play hands for them when paws wouldn’t suffice. 

It was only the chill on his sheets that felt so unwelcoming that night.  Not the fact that he’d grown used to their heavy breath and their warm bodies and the fact that they never seemed reluctant to share space with him.  Fenris had laid beside him when he prayed.  Aeryn had chivvied Orana to the fish market yesterday to buy the ingredients for the old familiar dish from home.  And there’d been leftovers…but the barley stew served at the Chantry table was filling.  To be sure.

With a sigh, Sebastian rolled over and tried to sleep.

It was a day later, hours crawling by as the Chant in its proper, eternal order rearranged his internal clock and laid a skim of placid holy oil on his rough waters that Bodahn sent a message that he was waiting at the door.  “I, ah, hate to concern you Brother Sebastian.  But...they left the other day...Sandal let them out.  Haven’t been back since.”

Trying not to panic, Sebastian walked as sedately as he could to Lowtown and the Hanged Man.  He breathed a deep relief to see Fenris lounging in Varric’s suite, a hand of cards dealt out before him.  He gave Sebastian a welcoming gruff and fell in at Sebastian’s heel.  “Have you seen Hawke, Varric?”

Varric looked troubled as he glanced between Fenris and Sebastian, but he answered easily enough, “Can’t say I have.   She’s not at home?”

He wanted to shout at the dwarf and his casual reply, but he managed to say simply, “No, she’s not.  Bodahn and Orana are a bit worried.”

Fenris whined at that and trotted to the door.  “D’ya know where she is, then?”

A yip was an easily interpreted acknowledgement.  Following the wolf out of the tavern, Sebastian was surprised to take the turning from the grubby environs of Lowtown to the even filthier surrounds of the Alienage.

He hardly waited for Merrill to answer his knock, “Aeryn!”  

She was gnawing on something...the remains of a ham bone, it looked like and ears pricked she started to give him an acknowledgement.

Only to curl her lip when he shouted, “You can’t run off like that giving everybody a heart attack when you can’t be found.  It’s…”

She growled at him and Fenris picked up on it, though his was laced with a whine and he barked at her when her body coiled tightly.

“Sebastian…”  Merrill was worried enough to lay a hand on his arm, flung up in anger, and draw up mana.

“Why are y’mad at me?!  I’m not th’one who..."

With a sinking sensation he realized that he’d just treated her like a hound, for the first time.  Leaving her behind when he was too busy, when he had human things to do.  And then being angry when she didn’t stay where she was told. 

Merrill left them alone for a minute, as she searched for something she’d promised to send Orana.  And Sebastian sat carefully beside Hawke, who was eyeing him balefully, her nose on her paws.  “I was afraid you’d left.  That…that you’d just gone.”

She lifted her head at that, making a little grumbling noise.  Fenris had moved closer, leaning against Sebastian’s leg the way he and Aeryn often did to each other. 

“I’m afraid to lose you…to this, I mean.”  He clarifies and then wonders why he felt he had to.  Aeryn shifts and set her heavy head on his knee.  Her tongue flicked out and licked his knuckle, and when she tensed, startled at her own action, he set a hand on her head to rub at the bone behind her ear.  Fenris was looking up at him with something unreadable in his gaze and when Sebastian hesitantly rubbed the silvery fur on his ears, his mouth dropped open and the green eyes disappeared behind contently drooping lids.

Sebastian was more than vaguely horrified that it hadn’t occurred to Fenris to feel the resentment.  

Aeryn was used to coming and going as she pleases, but Fenris had fallen too easily into considering himself at Sebastian’s heel.

After, he was more careful to treat them as normally as possible. Asking opinions, and considering their answers as best he could.  They did manage to communicate with their eyes, their postures , their bashing whipping tails.  As normal as possible. 

With skritches and licks and cold noses.  
  
00000  
He came in after a short time away and they trotted in to meet him, fondly sniffing him over. Aeryn stuck her nose in his crotch and reflexively, Sebastian slapped her muzzle away. “Stop that!” sharply.

She jerked back, startled and then a definite look of shame before she hunched in and whirled on her heels, claws clicking and scraping on the entryway’s tile as she bolted away and out the door.

By the time Fenris and he recovered enough to follow, she’d disappeared into the dark, black fur blending her away as effectively as shadows had, once.

They found her, finally, on the wall surrounding the city but she shied away from him. Fenris sat on his haunches and lowered himself to his chest and whined and Sebastian followed him, sitting on his heels

“Hawke, I’m…you just startled me. Expected that from Isabela, rather than you.” Her tongue lolled, just for a second in a clear laugh, but she ducked her head then and shifted back out of the light.

“It’s alright. You’ll be alright.” Sebastian tried to pitch his voice to be soothing. “Come back now, hmm? Come home.”

She gave a short yip and a low whine. Fenris lowered his head.  
  
“We’ll figure it out, Aeryn. It’s not going to be forever.” She finally huffed and let him bring his hand to rest on her ruff and bury his chilled fingers in the warmth as Fenris crept in to chuck his head under hers.

 _Please, Maker. Not forever._  
  
  
000000  
He mused as he walked behind them up the path to the Coast. How surprising that it was Fenris that was comfortable in his wolfish skin, free at last from the pain his markings cost him.  
Free from the exotic appearance that drew eyes as Kirkwall grew used to the prowling wolves in their midst.

And, too, Sebastian assumed, finally free from wondering when Danarius would come. What if he did? Fenris has nothing the mage might want now the lyrium had seemingly disappeared into faint markings of normal fur. He’d become a warm companion, eager to pursue whatever path his fellows wished to walk.

It was Hawke who has surprised them all, high-strung and short tempered. Her humor, it seemed, only a human veneer for the violent, sensitive creature beneath. Craving attention, petting and then haring away as if she was ashamed of it. She seemed disturbed most by the inability to hide the sudden waves of simple emotion. All of her defenses, legendary as fabled armor, nearly gone. To say she didn’t like it was a bitter understatement.  It was Fenris, now, who laid his head against hers, dropped a warning paw on hers, butted shoulders in gently physical reminders to stay calm.

As the spell lingered, she’d withdrawn; pacing the halls of her home like a cage. Only Aveline’s jobs or a hike to the coast to hunt had brought her out of the mansion of late; as the days wound into weeks. It had been well-nigh to a month now, Sebastian pondered. There was no sign that the spell or curse would wear off. 

Their behavior seemed to have stabilized. Wolfish, but with certain human understandings, leanings. Like the stories one heard of mabari. Smart enough to talk, too smart to bother.

Tonight, though, tonight the first moon was high and full and her smaller sister was peeking out, shaded in a deep orange behind scudding clouds. They’d been pacing and Fenris had his nose pressed against one of the high windows. He was making urgent little yips and Aeryn was pacing again.   
  
They were in need of walks, apparently.

But when Sebastian let them out, they went running, just occasionally stopping to see if he was following. He had to, of course, pausing only long enough to grab his bow.

They started howling only a few steps outside of the city gate and he followed them with growing apprehension. Was this some new, further change? The moon was full tonight. _Maker, please let it just be some whim._

_Don’t let the wildness take them._

They paused in their wild run, finally. Sitting at the edge of a cliff, Aeryn threw back her shaggy head and let out a high whining cry that Fenris bayed along with. In the distance, there were other wolves calling and Sebastian’s heart rose into his throat, dread making his palms itch, wondering if the moment was coming when they’d take off, forgetting their skin, forgetting the shackles of their former lives.

Forgetting him.

They sensed his anxiety, though, and took turns herding him between them. One howling, one pressed against him. They turned back to Kirkwall, finally, in the wee hours. The Chantry bells were calling vespers, but he had no inclination to stop and pray. He’d been praying all night.

In bed, they curled around him and he buried either hand in warm, coarse fur. Home at last.

  
0000000  
It wasn’t the first time in the last strange month he’d been waked by a doggish earlicking, one or the other wanting their breakfast the very instant the sun peeked over the horizon.

  
It took a moment after the short night, however to realize that the tongue delicately tracing the curve of his ear wasn’t the sloppy wake up he’d grown used to. It was too directed, too intent.

Panic clawed at him followed by a shattering sense of relief when it entered his horrified mind that the warm flanks his own hand was trapped between were smooth and rounded and altogether human.

And fog clearing revealed that the hand curved around his cock was indeed a hand. Fenris’ strong long-fingered brown tattooed hand, and to whom the moist, meaty breath on his throat belonged to as well though the fierce eyes looking into his with a growing sense of worry were Aeryn’s, all too human.

She whined under her breath, still wolfish in that at least, and Fenris’ hand stilled. Sebastian found himself pinned between their gazes as if they’d fixed him with his own arrows.

Whatever Aeryn saw in his face made her draw a veil over her features in a way he’d nearly forgotten in the past month. Fluidly, she sat back on her heels dignity draping her nakedness like a mantle, regal as any queen. “C’mon, Fenris. We aren’t welcome, anymore.” Her voice was gruffer than it had been.

“It seems not.” 

The two of them slid from his bed in near unison, their movements a mirror like on any other battlefield. Stunned into silence, Sebastian watched them leave; Fenris bumping her shoulder as they went through the door.

 

 


End file.
